Taking a page from HTC’s Sense UI for Android and old school Windows Phones, this user created a theme based on the HTC Droid Eris. Grap it here if you are a P3 owner that wants a little bit of Android action: Discussion Thread | Download Page

Browsing around the forums I see a few people purchasing screen protectors for their MP3 players that have glass screens. Some might say better safe than sorry but these screens are much more durable than one would think. Below I put a few of these glass screen players though some rather harsh scratch tests, well beyond what the vast majority of users might experience.

Samsung’s last blockbuster was the P2. It was a hot topic in our forum and a player that we put on our Top 5 Players of 2008 list. With that, you can imagine the P3 is a highly anticipated device for current P2 fans and possibly some other-brand owners looking to trade up to a very solid feature set.

For many of the P2 owners, the question is whether the changes made to the P3 make it worth upgrading. The P3 is a substantial improvement on features, build quality, UI, touch, and video playback and is very worthy of the incremental name. I might even call it a “P3.2”

We have been holding out here for quite a while for the P3. The rest of the world (even Canada!) has seen the light of this player but finally the US will see it in May. (Press Release) It will retail for $150(8GB), $200(16GB), and $300(32GB), slightly cheaper than what the S9 is currently selling for.

In addition to the P3 the small flash player the U5 as well as the Q2 will arrive stateside sometime in April. The U5 will sell for a mere $40 for a 2GB and the Q2 will retail for $100/$130 in 8GB and 16GB respectively.

The P3 has been one of my main players for the last few months and has gone though some significantly better firmware updates. With the recent update it has become one of my favorites, even edging out the Cowon S9 by a small margin. Stay tuned for a proper in-depth ABI review of the P3 and in the mean time you can check out some user opinions in the P3 forum.

The US has yet to see the light of the P3 though it has been out for a few months in Korea and is available now in the UK. So we are in a way lucky that we will see a more feature filled and more refined P3. Journal Du Geek is reporting on the change log with the biggest news is native video playback of up to 800×600 resolutions natively. In addition on the video end they have added SMI format support and a mosaic video browser (video) similar to the S9. With this and added DNSe setting for movies.

There are some other small things like a drawing notepad similar to Paint, a Dictionary (only Korean at the moment), and also a new mirror album art now playing screen which does look very cool. More importantly they have increased the performance by 30%. Touch responsiveness was lacking in early versions I used at CES and it improved in the retail version, so this will bring it up to par with the best of the touch screen players.

My initial impressions of the P3 have been very good; however I previously questioned whether it could go head to head with the Cowon S9 since it lacked native video support. But with this soon to come update they will without a doubt be direct competitors. The touch player battle is heating up. Stay tuned to out P3 forum for its release sometime in early March

The P2 is pretty hot, hot enough for us to name it as one of the top MP3 players of 2008. Sure enough there is a lot of excitement for the P3. This news all comes at very interesting times when several of the manufactures are jumping into this thin touch screen fray- the Cowon S9 (some cool abi photos) has been recently released and Sony will likely be showing off their touch based player.

This thread in the P3 forums is a nice news roundup of the latest P3 details with lots of links to HD video of the UI and official Korean landing pages for the P3. The only prices we know are the Korean pricing but they look like they will be in line with the Cowon S9. Expect to see the P3 at CES with the official release sometime in mid January.

Every week there is a number of news articles concerning DAPs that don’t make it to our front page simply because they are too insignificant for their own article. It can be a delay in release dates, small firmware update etc. To try and get this out to the people as well, here’s a news summary of week 48 2008.

GenerationMP3 is reporting that the long awaited S9 will be delayed until early 2009 do to production issues in Korea. Our forums have been buzzing with people wondering when the S9 will finally be out and it seems they have to wait a bit longer still.

The Samsung P3 has showed up at the FCC according to Engadget. This is just a further update on the P3 story as GenerationMP3 already has one and did a first look not too long ago.

iriver is doing their usual weird strategic choices in the DAP industry and have released a new version of the E100. This isn’t the E150/E200 that Grahm wrote about in April as according to Akihabara News the only new thing about this model (named E100 Season 2) is new colors. If you recall our E100 review it isn’t exactly the best player on the market and i fail to see how a few new colors will change that.

Thanksgiving is on for our American readers and in the wake of that comes black Friday. This also means a lot of deals on MP3 players and related accessories, so join our forums and share the deals to help make sure the players will find a new home.

It’s not a surprise that the Samsung P2 is getting a successor seeing how popular the player is, but so far Samsung has been very quiet. They still are, but GenerationMP3 has gotten their hands on one and has posted a bit of info on it while we wait for the official launch at CES in January.

Size wise it’s almost identical to the P2 at 02 x 52.7 x 9.9 mm and 85g, but the player is now aluminum instead of plastic. It has a haptic touch screen, same 3″ 272×480 display, Bluetooth and an FM radio. New features include widgets, a mono speaker and capacities ranging from 4 to 32GB. It also ships with some of the enhancement the P2 got rhough firmware updates including support for both Vorbis and FLAC. Battery life is rated at 30 hours for audio and 5 hours for video.

Stop by the Samsung P3 forum, we have some insiders hanging out there answering questions.

abi Editor's Choice

SanDisk Sansa Clip+

The Clip+ has a fantastic little form factor; somewhat cheap in build quality but very rugged. The interface is simple and relatively straightforward. The features on the Clip are more or less average, however it supports the alternative Rockbox firmware which provides tons of additional options (gapless playback, Replaygain, playlists, Last.fm scrobbling, etc). Read the full review or go ahead and buy it.

Cowon J3

The J3 is a fantastic PMP with a very nice AMOLED screen and tons of features. It sports Cowon's trademark BBE sound enhancements, and offers a customizable user interface with strong support by our user community. You can usually find it at Amazon for the best price - and don't forget to check out our review.

Microsoft Zune HD

Sure, many of us are not big fans of the walled garden, but there are a lot of great things going on with the Zune: sturdy hardware, ultra easy to use user interface, and a media player that is worthy of Editor’s Choice. You can check out our Zune HD review or stop by our Zune forums for the latest info and gossip.

Phonak Audéo PFE

Phonak Audéo PFE offer outstanding clarity and precision; natural, dynamic mids and treble, and decent bass for a single armature in-ear phone. They handle dense, complex music very well. The PFE work well with most acoustic and some electronic music genres, but bassheads might have to look at other alternatives. They're great for sports as well, since they fit very securely. Check out our review.

Hippo VB

The Hippo VB (Variable Bass) offers a serious subwoofer for on the go, right in your head. They don’t just deliver generous quantities of punchy, textured bass, but good audio quality over the whole frequency range with decent clarity and exceptional soundstage. Exchangeable bass ports let you customize their sound to your liking. Read our in-depth Hippo VB review.

Soundmagic E10 / E30

The Soundmagic E10 and E30 are basically right in the middle between the Phonak PFE and Hippo VB - not too analytical sounding, not too bass heavy. The E10 provide a bit more bass, the E30 a bit more clarity. Both come with a very fair price tag considering the sound quality they deliver - a great choice for the audio aficionado on a budget. Read our E10 and E30 reviews for more info.